Different in degree or kind: Egnor's take (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, September 26, 2016, 15:19 (2980 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: Back to your advanced planning. In most cases of innovation, I have suggested that the new structures are formed as a response to changes in the environment (new needs or opportunities) - not to advance planning. (“Advanced” is a little ambiguous: do you mean in advance, or do you mean highly sophisticated? Of course, I accept the latter.) In the case of language, my suggestion is that the pressure came from inside, in so far as early humans needed new sounds.-Of course they needed the best communication they could develop. Mc Crone describes the probable vocal abilities of pre sapiens. But he states that proper speech required the prior development of the anatomy.-> dhw: And I would also suggest that if these anatomical changes took place 200,000 years ago, it is possible that human language began 200,000 years ago and not 50,000 years ago.-You've repeated yourself. Of course H. erectus was speaking in a very limited way and they had simple spoken communication, not our sophisticated language, which required our brain and our sapiens anatomy. McCrone's book is quite specific.